Google’s $5.4 Billion Acquisition Of Cybersecurity Firm Mandiant Comes As Tech Leaders Brace For Escalating Digital Threats

▤ Summary

The deal, which is slated to close later this year, sees Google snap up a coveted prize at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine is fueling widespread concern about rising cyberthreats. Mandiant, which was spun out of cybersecurity company FireEye in 2013 and sold to private-equity investors for $1.2 billion, has built up a reputation for smart analysis of hackers’ activities, including those of groups from Russia and China. Lou Steinberg, a former CTO of TD Ameritrade who is the founder and managing partner of cybersecurity firm CTM Insights, thinks the risk of cyber activity spreading beyond Ukraine and Russia will partly depend on how far economic sanctions go in terms of damaging the Russian economy. Cappelli also recommends that companies step up scrutiny of their software supply chains, including code that controls key machinery and safety systems in factories and other critical infrastructure, such as power grids. Johannes Ullrich of the SANS Institute, which specializes in cybersecurity training and research, says there’s a real risk of companies overloading cyber defenders with preparations for threats that may or may not become reality when they’re only just recovering from dealing with the Log4j security crisis in open source software at the end of last year.

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